Diamond Dawgs End West Coast Road Trip with Tie vs. Oklahoma

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) – After splitting a pair of one-run contests, the No. 17 Mississippi State baseball team ended its West Coast road swing with a unique result Sunday afternoon.

MSU and Oklahoma played to a 5-5 tie on the final day of Dodger Stadium College Baseball Classic in a contest played at Major League Baseball’s Dodger Stadium.

MSU (8-3-1) was unable to protect a 5-1 lead and saw Oklahoma (4-7-1) rally with two runs in the fourth inning and single scores in the fifth and sixth innings. The contest was called after nine innings because of a three-hour time limit for travel purposes.

Playing away from home for the first time this season, the Bulldogs had a weekend full of drama. An excellent pitching start by Dakota Hudson went for naught Friday as MSU fell to No. 9 UCLA 2-1. A day later, the bats got going in MSU’s 8-7 win over No. 20 Southern California. It was MSU’s first win over a Top 20 team this season.

The pitching star for the Maroon and White Sunday was junior left-hander Vance Tatum. Tatum pitched the final 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit and facing the minimum number of batters (11). Tatum gave his team a chance to rally but the Bulldogs couldn’t break through with another score.

MSU erased an early 1-0 deficit by scoring three times in the home half of the first inning.

(Photo CC: MSU Athletics)

Jacob Robson singled and Jake Mangum walked. Jack Kruger followed with an RBI-double. Brent Rooker had a ground ball out scoring another run. Nathaniel Lowe then made it 3-1 with an RBI-single.

The lead was upped by a Luke Alexander RBI-single in the second inning and Gavin Collins’ first home run of the year in the third inning. After that, the Bulldogs left two runners in the fourth inning and could not take advantage of an Elih Marrero double in the fifth inning.

Daniel Brown drew the start but was lifted with one out in the fourth inning. Brown allowed three hits and three runs (all earned), with two walks and a strikeout. Reid Humphreys logged the next two innings. Ryan Rigby faced two batters in relief but got no outs before giving way to Tatum.

Oklahoma tied the contest on a safety squeeze in the sixth inning but had an equally tough time getting anything going in the late innings off Tatum.

MSU outhit Oklahoma 10-8. Mangum, Kruger and Marrero each had multiple hits.

MSU will play host to South Alabama at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Dudy Noble Field.